SWL Week in Review - No Typists Anymore...

From:

sam lessin <s@wlessin.com>

To:

Hidden Recipient <hidden@emailshot.io>

Date:

2/14/2026, 12:21 AM(10 days ago)

More or Less — In Everyone a Developer or No One A Developer?
A great conversation between ski runs … on the future of open networks vs. closed / monolithic AI companies… in the future is ‘everyone a developer’ … or are there no developers and everyone just builds things (just like everyone types)…

HOT TAKES

AI & Liability Nexus … centralize value, radiate liability?— I can’t remember whose thesis it was about how tech companies centralize value and radiate out liability structurally (cynical but interesting) — … but is that what we are seeing in AI? What It looks like to me is that the AI companies are centralizing liability (which limits what they can do for people)…. It makes me pretty bullish on the ‘app’ layer of AI like OpenClaw and Zo…. The monoliths sling tokens like energy (at low margin!) … but can’t dance / do all the things end users want because of liability — so then local bots controlled by individuals taking on liability personally… that is where the action actually is. I am pretty long at this point decentralized AI… and that the ‘labs’ are just energy++ dealers in a highly competitive market (not where you want to be!) … why? Because liability of how AI is USED

ENTP 8w7 With a Hard Challenger Core — someone pointed out to me that many / most people use chatbots for personal questions / light / cheap psychiatry — so I tried it — it at least nailed my personal profile in a way I think is both accurate and I find quite flattering… and then when I made it guess what Jessica is based on public info and then compare where we are compatible and the places we would fight — honestly not bad. Cheap therapy is so affirming…. Maybe not productive — but definitely affirming :)

Insurance for Non-Cat-Owners — dog owners have to walk them… cat owners probably get fewer steps per day… Cat owners also have toxoplasmosis… which leads to increased risk of death… so the obvious thing, one click insurance ‘do you own a cat’ yes/no… or dog-affinity group insurance with better rates.

Snow Express Flights — global warming makes snow less consistent… the obvious answer… a snow express flight. Has a takeoff time on Friday from a fixed location — but the destination is variable / open ended and only gets locked in moments before takeoff based on storm / snow forecasts ... so you are always as the right resort.

Heated Rivalry ... — I finally got an explanation from a very smart friend of why it is so popular…. Straight women want a romance / love story where they don’t feel any subconscious envy / jealousy towards the character in the story.

Is Everyone a Developer… or is No One a Developer… — this was th most interesting more or less riff IMHO — and worth more conversation… are we touting open claw events as ‘developer’ events / designing them around and for developers — or is it just natural that in the future ‘users’ produce code… (I think the later)

Is Bot Money Oversold? — if bots are the new hotness… why are things like Solana - which is a clear bot-money candidate — sold off so much… I get it — bigger narrative dominates smaller narrative — but still… seems strange… I am long bot money.

Learnings From The Roman Empire’s Immigration Issues — this was a great lettermeme find — per usual nothing is new in the world ever…

How cheap would SaaS Have to Be For You To Buy? — I am actually curious… there is always a price — no one wants to own the ‘middle’ (which SaaS is) — neither land or gold… nor copper… nor a narrative asset that can 100x ... so what is a slightly compounding OK story with liability to zero if ‘future’ happens worth? It can’t be zero… but it might be very very very little given the rules of supply and demand (and a world where your gains and income are likely to be so heavily taxed that earning 10% a year even if it were safe just isn’t very appealing!)

Best,
Sam

P.S. jess built an app and deployed it to the internet on her own... here comes software publishing....

P.P.S. I fell in love with the gras people from the moment I laid eyes on them.. and I am glad the world agrees. Left, Right, Up, Down, Gay, Straight... Christian or Atheist... Grass person for president and grass will heal the world.

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